by Cari Quinn
The fans had been out in force since he’d gotten back to California. The paparazzi trying to get pictures of him going everywhere. And no matter what building it was, there was speculation he was seeing some expert or doctor.
They could speculate all they wanted. His second visit with Dr. Connor had gone much like his last. Keep his damn mouth shut and heal up, son. And if his voice didn’t work, then he’d make his face do the job.
For now.
They stepped on the elevator. “So, what do you think?”
“I need to see the view, Bobbi.”
“That’s what you always say, Simon.”
He didn’t give two shits about the layout of the place. He had to buy all new crap to put in it anyway. “Give me my perfect ocean view and we’re golden.”
“You do know how hard that is? Everyone wants that.”
“Yes, but I gave you a pretty decent price point.”
“You did,” she agreed. “And I think I found exactly what you want.”
“I did say Venice Beach. Last time you showed me Santa Monica. And the time before that you tried to push me down near El Segundo. Do I look like I want out near the airport? The commute into the city sucks as it is.”
“It was the perfect place.”
“Yeah, except the part where you forgot to tell me that the owner was murdered by his wife for cheating.”
“It kept the price down.”
Simon shook his head. Every damn building in Los Angeles and the surrounding area had a story. Damn melodramatic town.
“Besides, Venice Beach isn’t exactly the best waterfront property in the world. It’s tourist city here.”
“It’s what I want.”
She sighed. The doors opened and she held her arm out. “Well, hopefully you’ll like it.” They walked down the plush carpeted hallway. “There’s only two apartments on this floor. And the other is being renovated.”
“Like carpenter and loud noises forever, renovated?”
“It will be done in four weeks.”
He sighed. Things could be worse. She opened the door and he whistled. It was a huge, open floor plan. Industrial with hardwood throughout and an exposed brick kitchen with jet black appliances. There was one step down to the living room and nothing but windows.
“I’ll take it.”
“You haven’t even seen the master bedroom.”
“Don’t care.” He walked to the window and saw the beach and the boardwalk right below him.
“Well, at least look at it so I can say I did my job.”
He followed her into a short hallway that opened into another room with more windows. There was a raised dais for what looked like a king-sized bed. He stepped up and turned around.
Ocean. All of the ocean a body could watch.
“When can I get in here?”
“I’ll put the bid in. I can get the keys on Sunday.”
“Perfect.” He stepped off the dais and went back to the window. “There’s a bonus in it if you can get a designer to do a rush job.”
“I’ll make it happen.”
He turned away from the view. “Thanks, Bobbi.”
“Is there a reason for the rush?”
“Just need a place of my own.”
And a place that he could convince Margo to move into.
Margo tugged her carry-on down out of the overhead compartment. She’d spent the last few days juggling her finances and fending off her mother’s calls for a visit. Her audition for the LA Philharmonic was in a week.
She was trying out to be an alternate on the second violin chair. The current violinist was going out on maternity leave. If she did well, they might keep her on for a permanent position. But that was six months of permanent work.
Something she desperately needed.
She’d done a few studio jobs, but the bicoastal trips were killing her and whatever extra she was making was being eaten up by air travel. Her current situation wasn’t working and she didn’t know what to do about it. Because she didn’t want to leave Simon.
He was handling things as well as could be expected, but she knew he was struggling. She felt it in the middle of the night when he reached for her. Both of them were desperate to keep the connection they’d found in St. John, but the house with the band was crowded and when he wasn’t in town, she felt weird staying there.
Jazz and Harper made her feel welcome, but both of them were always squirreled away talking about babies and the new food they were developing. She felt out of place. And now that Oblivion was on the sidelines, Lila was taking care of other aspects of Ripper Records.
Margo was in limbo and didn’t fit anywhere.
She got into the line of sheep shuffling off the plane and out into LAX. Simon hadn’t texted her back since that afternoon so she had no idea if he was picking her up or not.
Shuffled from departure to baggage, she checked her phone as she rode the glider.
“Is there a Violin Girl looking for a ride?”
She looked up and whipped her head around as the glider whipped past him. “You jerk. I was just texting you.”
He stood on sidelines, his hands dipped into worn dark jeans. A green shirt hugged his lean body and made his eyes glow. He wore one of Roman’s leather jackets, the soft leather emphasizing his amazing shoulders.
The rude T-shirts were gone now that he’d been modeling. Most of the time it was because he got a perk for wearing the designer clothes when he was out and about. The only thing that never changed was his shaggy hair and his shitkicker boots.
She couldn’t explain why she always noticed that, but she did.
She got to the end of the glider and met him in the middle. He had her bags on a cart, including her two large violin cases.
“Are you finally moving in?”
Margo stopped in front of him with her carry-on dragging behind her. “I don’t know, Simon. It’s…” She trailed off. “It’s complicated.”
“No it’s not. In fact, I have something to show you.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“I’ve seen that.”
“Har-har.” He dragged her into him and caught her mouth in a slow, sweet kiss. When he pulled back, he cupped her jaw and swiped his thumb along her cheek. “I missed you.”
She licked her lips and twisted her fingers into his shirt. “Yeah, I guess I missed you, too.”
“Oh, you guess?”
“Maybe.” She rose onto her toes and met his mouth again. “A little.”
He gripped her hair a little tighter and the teasing kiss got a little more heated. When someone bumped her arm and set her off a step, she finally stepped back.
“Watch it, pal,” Simon said.
“Get a room,” the older man muttered as he melted into the crowd.
Margo huffed out a laugh and tugged on his arm. “He’s right. We’re holding up the flow here. Besides, I expect you to show me a proper welcome home hug.”
“Oh, you’ll be the one hugging something.” He pressed his lips to her ear. “I’ve missed being inside that sweet body of yours. Simon senior misses his favorite pussy.”
She couldn’t stop the smile. She had missed his dirty talking ways. And now that he wasn’t allowed to whisper, he’d found ways to drop his voice to a lower register that made her toes curl.
They linked fingers and he walked her out of the airport and to the parking garage. She still wasn’t sure where she belonged, but if she got the work with the Philharmonic, then she was going to have to find an apartment in Los Angeles.
The schedule was relentless and even if she didn’t play every show—she had to be there for rehearsals. If she got the job.
If she didn’t, she was going to have to put herself out there again for studio work.
“To the left.”
She frowned. “Where’s Harper’s truck?”
He smiled. “I got a little something different.”
“Did you buy a car?” Finally. It was a pain in the ass to share the two
vehicles that were the house cars. The house in the hills wasn’t exactly easy to get to without a vehicle.
“Something like that.”
He took his keys out and LED lights flashed from the back of a sleek black car. “An R8? Are you kidding me?”
“It was a perk of the contract. I get a car out of the deal.”
“You’re…” She trailed off. “Audi?” She knew Simon’s face and the band had been doing well, but not that well.
“Roman’s campaign lit the fires. And their last spokesperson just got arrested.”
Margo huffed out a laugh. “I don’t want to know.”
“I was on the short list and Stef got me a bonus in the contract.” He opened the door. “Want to drive, Speedy?”
She stashed her violin into the backseat. “Hell yes.”
“God save us.”
“Hey, you offered.” She stepped in and groaned when the butter soft leather slid along the backs of her legs. “Wow.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty sweet.” He shut the door and stowed her suitcases in the trunk before coming around to the passenger side. “It’s keyless, so just…”
She pressed her foot on the brake and hit the button.
“Done this before?”
“My father has an Audi,” she said with a shrug. “Not this kind though.”
“You wouldn’t be calling my baby an old man car, would you?”
She shook her head solemnly and curled her fingers around the steering wheel. “Absolutely not.”
“You know I love you if you’re driving, right?”
She turned to him. He always said it at the strangest times, usually when she didn’t know how to reply. Simon tapped the screen and a British female voice told her to exit the parking garage. “Really?”
He shrugged. “I like hot accents.”
She shook her head and pulled out. The engine was silent and she jumped forward. “So this is what being a cheetah feels like.”
“We’re going to die.” He scrunched down in the seat. “Tell me when I can open my eyes.”
“Wimp.”
“When you’re driving? Yes. Why, yes I am.”
“I’m not that bad.”
“You were Mario Andretti’s twin in a former life.”
She slowed her way down the parking ramp and took a right as the electronic voice explained to her. Once it put her on the straightaway, she punched it and the engine sang. “Oh, yes,” she hissed.
“Please don’t kill us.”
Of course, they were in Los Angeles, so her speed was short-lived. They inched through traffic and Simon caught her up on his jobs and the happenings at the house. When the directions took her toward the water, she frowned.
“Where are we going?”
“Just keep driving.”
She turned onto a coastal road and saw signs for the boardwalk. Finally, the GPS told her turn into a huge apartment high rise.
“Park in P8.”
“It’s a little late to be apartment hunting, don’t you think?”
He didn’t answer her, just got out and went to the trunk. He pulled her bags out and hooked her violin case onto the telescope handle.
She bent to take her Stradivarius. “Am I going to get a hint?”
“You’re a smart girl.”
“You’re a smart ass.”
He held his hand out out to her. “Come on.” He led her to the elevator and plugged a narrow card into the slot on the panel and pressed a button. The elevator shot up without stopping.
She held onto the side of the car. “Whoa.”
“Yeah. It’s kind of like a non-stop subway ride. It’s the only drawback I’ve found so far. Sometimes you have to wait a few minutes for the elevator because you can only get off on your floor. Of course it goes at the speed of light, so it’s not that long of a wait usually.” The doors opened and he held the door. “After you.”
Plastic fluttered from the door at the end of the hall.
“First one.”
He pulled out a key, opened the door and then punched in a code. She left her violin case inside the door. A huge room with hardwood floors drew her inside. There was very little furniture in the living space. A huge leather sectional, television, and a geometric rug in varying purples. The farther she got into the room, she was drawn to the floor-to-ceiling windows and the life going on below.
They were a few blocks from the boardwalk, and he was near the top floor of the high rise.
P8.
Penthouse eight?
It was dark, but there was no denying the whitecaps of Venice Beach. Simon’s beach, here in California. Their beach. She could see the fisherman’s pier lit up like a runway. And under there, she’d realized they were so much more than secret moments in hidden stairwells.
She pressed her hand to the glass and swallowed over the lump that had formed in her throat. Then she noticed a separate corner with a small area rug in a gradation of red to black. Stashed in the very corner was a deep red chair made to curl into. A bookcase sat beside it with a case on the shelf. In front of the bookcase was an elegant sheet music stand in oiled brass. It was set up for actual sheets or an iPad like so many of the studio musicians she’d worked with had.
Her eyes filled. “Is that for me?”
Simon came up behind her and looped his arms around her waist. “I didn’t decorate the place very much, but I wanted you to see how much I want you here. You can change—”
“No.” She turned her face up to him and cupped his jaw. “Nothing. It’s perfect.”
He lowered his mouth to hers. “You didn’t even see what’s in the case.”
“Whatever it is, it’s too much.”
“I make all this stupid money, the least I can do is spend it on the people I love.”
Twice in one day. The tears she’d been able to hold back suddenly slipped down her cheek. “I love you too, you know.”
“Then move in with me.”
“I…” She wanted to say yes. The place was huge and had so much potential, but it was his. She didn’t have any way to pull her weight. “I can’t afford this, Simon.”
“I can.”
“Yes, but I can’t.”
He turned her into his arms. “Then I’ll get an apartment in fucking Carson again.”
The lump that had been choking her seemed impossibly huge. This was so Simon. Huge, a little ostentatious, modern, and eclectic. She stepped out of his arms. A built-in bookcase filled the far wall and she saw all the purchases he’d made in St. John.
Every piece he’d quietly picked out and stashed away at the house was here.
Pieces she’d picked out with him.
“Dammit, Margo. I want us to be together. Not just in some bedroom in a shared house. Here together. Making a life together.”
“What if I can’t find work here?”
“Then I’ll take care of you until you do.”
“I don’t want you to take care of me.”
He backed up a step. “You don’t—” He tipped his head back.
“I have to be able to take care of myself, Simon. Can’t you understand that?”
“No. I can’t. I understand you wanting a career of your own. I wish that I didn’t fuck it all up with my voice, but I’m trying to make the best of it.”
She rushed forward and gripped his waist. “No. It’s not that either. I was hired to help with the tour. I was never in the band. This was always going to come up.”
“So you were always going to leave?”
She shook her head. “No. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I had time to figure it out.”
“Then stay here and figure it out. Stay with me.” His blue eyes glittered with all that intensity she’d fallen so hard for on stage.
She twisted his shirt in her fingers. “I have an audition.”
“For what?”
“The LA Philharmonic.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” Simon’s eyebrows snapped down. “Isn�
�t that a good thing?”
How could she explain to him that part of her was thrilled and the other part of her felt like it was going back fifteen steps? The first time she’d ever felt alive was on stage with his band. Could she really go back to that old life again? That stifled life where she didn’t get to collaborate with anyone.
“I don’t know. I might not get it.”
“Of course you’re going to get it. You’re fucking flawless.”
She rose onto her toes cupped his face. “I love you, Simon. It’s the only thing I’m sure of.”
“Then stay with me.” He slid his palm around and under her shirt. “This is where you belong.”
She let him draw her in, let him seduce her closer, let him draw her farther into the apartment and down the hallway. And she finally drew him into her body, where she knew he belonged.
At least that part they could agree with.
Twenty-Two
The week was a whirlwind of practice and furniture shopping. She’d insisted on buying a few pieces, that made up the empty half of their bedroom. He’d gotten a California King to put on the crazy dais in his—their room. It felt like she was on a damn pedestal and was going to fall of the damn bed.
But the view out the window was certainly worth it. She’d played more than one sonata to the epic audience of the sun setting on the water. She caught Simon watching her practice a time or two, but his fingers seemed to be forever bunched into fists.
His last trip to the doctor’s had been a good one and now he had no excuse not to find a voice coach to start the road to recovery. The problem was, he seemed to make sure he was too busy to do anything but work.
“I’ll make an appointment later,” was becoming his favorite phrase.
She wasn’t quite sure how to help him there. Especially when she was hiding too. She’d learned the piece for the audition as well as the personal piece she was supposed to bring.
The personal piece was usually one that was a favorite from composers. She’d chosen one of her own that she’d put together with Deacon and Gray on the tour. They’d extended “The Becoming” to be an epic finale of the concerts. She’d started putting her own spin on the song and now it was just a little more her. Not just Oblivion with her flavor.
